Night in the Woods Is Not About Teens or the 90s

Night in the Woods is not about teenagers or the 90′s.

One of the developers behind the project, Scott Benson, tweeted out today “people are gonna be sad when they discover it’s neither furry nor saved by the bell.” The first is, of course, a reference to the subculture fandom of anthropomorphic animals and the second a reference to the teen 90′s sitcom. This again, reiterates the title post – Night in the Woods is not about teens or the 90′s.

If you are confused, perhaps because you saw a thing about Night in the Woods once and swore you saw a cat (or was it a gerbil) or that surely the dialogue spoke to you like some sort of Freaks and Geeks but with cooler colors, then you are not alone. Some articles are possibly using terms like “Lynch-ian” a reference to the director David Lynch, who made some weird movies awhile back and has now become a cultural touch stone for “cool but kind of weird yo.”

You might be thinking “but hey, how do you know that the characters are not teenagers!” Well, a quick perusal of the site has informed me that Mae (the main character) is actually a college drop out. Also the developer keeps saying that they’re not teenagers. That kind of helps.

Here’s the description of Night in the Woods, which is set for release later this year after a super successful Kickstarter campaign:

College dropout Mae Borowski returns home to the crumbling former mining town of Possum Springs seeking to resume her aimless former life and reconnect with the friends she left behind. But things aren’t the same. Home seems different now and her friends have grown and changed. Leaves are falling and the wind is growing colder. Strange things are happening as the light fades.

So not really about teens. Or the 90′s as far as I can tell, though it is possible I suppose that Possum Springs exists in a state of being in the perpetual 90′s, the way that people imagine Portland.

Want to find out more about Night in the Woods? You can see more at the website.